Poetry 1900-2000: Wyn Griffith

This is the fourth in the series of poets' lives taken from the profiles Meic Stephens gives us as a taster in Poetry 1900-2000. The anthology will be celebrated on 22 April at the London Welsh Centre: details here.

Wyn Griffith was born in Llandrillo yn Rhos in 1890, the son of a headmaster, and left Wales in 1909 to join the civil service where he rose to be an Assistant Secretary. He served with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in World War 1 and witnessed the slaughter at Mametz Wood. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre. In later life he was a regular on the radio in the Round Britain Quiz. He wrote prose for his children so that they would get an insight into his Welsh background. He wrote one book of verse, The Barren Tree, which contains a verse play, Branwen. His works are those of a Welshman who experienced the horrors of war and totalinarianism in Europe.

What towered land of man’s endeavour
will first be desert, with all our learning
a burnt page trodden in the dust of error?

Text: Fraser Cains